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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

return to the Knights Templar at "Templaria Festival" in Castignano

Templaria is a festival on the medieval civilization, with theater, music and dance, which takes place between the ancient stone houses of the village of Castignano (about 15 km from Ascoli Piceno, 200 km from Rome ), and provides an opportunity to rediscover and re-emergence of their memory. Around the theme of the Templars is a structured program full of shows, with productions of medieval environments, old shops of artisans and art, banquets markets. You may wonder what this town has special standing atop one of the gullies, typical of the territory of Ascoli Piceno. First, its history, whose testimony has been among the stones of the Church of St. Peter and Paul built on '"Acropolis" of the country with fourteenth-century structure, with a Romanesque façade almost square, adorned with a magnificent rose window spokes and travertine columns, on the left of which abuts the fourteenth-century bell tower, the interior is divided into two aisles surmounted by two large arches. On the walls are wooden baroque altars and a fine choir, also in wood, of the fifteenth century. There was talk at the beginning of the Templars, the reader will wonder, therefore, that relationship may exist between these characters and the mysterious town of Castignano. One possible answer lies in the Church of St. Maria del Borgo, built precisely in the twelfth century by the Knights Templar, the Romanesque-Gothic style, is adorned with two magnificent arched portals of which a slightly acute frames with geometric decoration in terracotta tile above the T (tau), symbol Order of Knights Templar. In memory of the presence of the Templars, next to the Church, runs the longest being Castignano "Templars Way", it runs between two rows of houses, narrow, narrow, mysterious. The presence of the Templars in Castignano is certain because the country was the nodal point of transit for pilgrims from Rome moved to the ports of embarkation for the Holy Land. They left a significant influence in the history, economy and tradition of charming Piceno. The Templars returned to live in Castignano, as every year, with the Templaria Festival, which for the 2011 edition provides a series of events from August 16 until August 19. Information: www.templaria.it